Durhamfootman wrote:well there you go... same as taking a 32 man squad.

Fill it full of any old rubbish............. except Borthwick of course, who will have to find a grade side to bring him down under

Not one to hold a grudge are you , Footman ?

no, not me

Stonemercenary was bad enough.... shocking the way he jumped ship, because if he was ever going to get a test berth, he was going to get it regardless of where he played... particularly since his selection was the result of England trying every other possibility first, but he also cited being reunited with his cricketing hero, DiVenuto, as being the other major factor in his move, which I would understand, if he'd took a pay cut to achieve it.

Borthwick just *modded* off

there was no way he was going to enhance anything career-wise, because he was always going to be competing with Sangakkara for the no.3 slot, and always going to be completely overshadowed by him. He was also likely to be competing with Ansari as a top order second spin option and he just got plain old lucky there, otherwise he'd have been dropped much earlier in the season than he was, so he basically went down the less game time but more money route favoured by English football players. If he'd come and said he was going for financial security, I wouldn't have liked it, but would have understood it, but he came out with all this England career shite to justify it... almost as if he thought we were *modded* idiots

Rumours are now, that he would come back, if given the chance..... well he can ssip off for me.... we have a new number 3 who has impressed this season, despite being thrown in at the deep end. At the very least, Borthwick would need to walk out to bat at the Riverside in sack cloth and a hair shirt, with "I'm sorry" printed on the back of it, to even begin the process of healing the rift between him and the supporters. Big Ponce!

In his absence, we have also further developed a number 4, with another in reserve who we thought we going to be big this year, but had a few injury set backs. The way the club has developed since he scarpered with full trouser pockets, he'd have to turn himself into an opener, or work really hard on his bowling to become good enough to bat at 8, in order to get back into the side.... so I actually think he'd have to go to somewhere like Leicester or Derby

And just so you don't think that Stonemercenary has gotten away with it..... I wish him no joy at all of playing for England

if he goes to Australia as Cooks opening partner (which he might, particularly now that he's scoring big runs on pitches that produce 1300 runs in 3 days with 5 centurions) I hope he gets so worked over by Starc et al, that it scars him mentally and diminishes him as a player for the rest of his career.

what really annoys me about his call up, is that he will think he made the right decision to stick 2 fingers up at the club that developed him, nurtured him, and turned him into a player god enough to get an England call up. He won't notice that England tried 11 other openers before, in desperation, they turned to him, and he'll somehow convince himself that they wouldn't have called him up if he'd shown the loyalty that the club deserved for sticking with him, through thick and thin.... and there was a lot of thin in his early years.

I usually think sportspeople should chamge clubs with the same that any employee feels in changing job. Athletes tend to be less honest in their motivations, but then their decision comes under a different kind of scrutiny.